Did you know that Rockstar briefly considered releasing a Grand Theft Auto game set in Tokyo? Speculation about a Japanese edition of the crime sandbox caper has been rife for several years, especially after Take-Two famously filed trademarks for a game based in the city shortly after the release of GTA: San Andreas in 2004.
Speaking with our friends at Time Extension, a development source explained that Tokyo was on the cards at one point, but the idea was ultimately shelved. “[Co-Founder Sam Houser] was pretty caught up with the Tokyo scene. He had just released GTA 3 back then and they were doing a lot of travel to Tokyo back then to promote the game. It seemed like a cool, interesting city to do it in, but at the end of the day, it just came down to logistics.”
The source explained that sending a research team to Tokyo for long enough to map out the city was a problem, but more importantly it didn’t feel it could get the series’ trademark “cultural satire” to work in quite the same way. “Making those things connect was a little tough and we thought it was just cooler to stick with the cities that were introduced in [the original] GTA.”
While the reasoning makes sense, we can’t help but imagine what a Tokyo-based GTA would have looked like. Of course, there have been plenty of Japanese sandboxes to scratch the itch since, most notably the Yakuza titles – despite their obvious absence of driving. Would you have played a Japan-based GTA? Imagine what could have been in the comments section below.
Would you have played GTA Tokyo on PS2? (290 votes)
- Are you kidding? It's basically my dream game
- I probably would have played it, yeah
- Nah, I'm not a fan of GTA games to be honest
[source timeextension.com]
Comments 20
Well, we have Yakuza now at least.
Maybe one day, they'll go back to Tokyo?
Probably not...
It’s a cool idea in theory, but it’s a fair justification for not doing it. I’m not sure where you’d even start nailing the cultural satire as a complete outsider.
We already have a Japanese GTA-like game set in Japan that captures the look, culture, attitudes, humour and atmosphere of the country, I see no reason to rue an American studio, after little more than a brief consideration, deciding they wouldn't be able to do it justice. They were absolutley right so there's nothing to lament. An odd article.
No need when we have sleeping dogs 😉
I don't see what this would have to offer that Yakuza doesn't already provide, apart from a needlessly larger world to explore.
GTA Tokyo would have been LIIIIT
OK. I'm going to be the one to say it: That game would have been racist as F because society in general did not give an F back then.
Remember Kenji in GTA3? Go back and listen to him and imagine a whole game with this guy. Different time, my friends. What was allowed then is absolute cringe today. Hogs of War 1999 for example had some Japanese lines in it that I am 99% certain will not make the often rumoured remaster. Imagine all of the following lines in an accent like Jerry Lewis:
''Hallo! Do yo, have the, great time?''
''Boom boom bang, and you're actual more fun!''
''Oh, howey there!''
And so on, and so forth. We are best off without the comedy Japanese GTA game.
I'm not a fan of the poll BTW as it is basically ''yes, yes, soft pass because I dislike GTA.'' I want an option that just says ''no''.
@LifeGirl Haha, feedback noted, that's fair.
"A man who never eats pork bun is never a WHOLE man"
I like the idea of this in concept, but I do understand that ‘cultural satire’ from Westerners towards a Japanese setting would 100% lean into dodgy territory.
If it was around San Andreas times then there's no need for it to be mapped to match Tokyo at all.
I also think that they need to vary the GTA locations. America has worn a little thin at this point.
@__jamiie A GTA set in Glasgow would be superb
Its fine, we got Sleeping Dogs which was awesome
They made the right call. An open world Tokyo game would be cool, like Sleeping Dogs did for Hong Kong, but not as GTA. Like they said, the satirical aspect wouldn't translate.
@nessisonett In the 2000s especially... dodgy would be putting it lightly I fear.
@Jrs1 That's Hong Kong but yeah. Amazing game.
@Jrs1 I wish this was a thing but I doubt there’s that many of the original Scottish devs left on board to make it happen.
Removed - disrespecting others
Regardless of the difficulties of westerners trying to do cultural satire of Japanese culture it seems pretty obvious to me that rockstar would be highly unlikely to do a 3D GTA game set outside of the USA. America is the county with the most amount of soft power in the world & GTA games are only building on popular cultural references from popular American media & society to generate more sales. It's the same reason I don't think they'd make a red dead redemption game set outside the USA despite other countries like Argentina, Brazil & Australia having cowboy/outlaw cultures develop as part of their colonial history in the 1800s & to make the point even clearer how many ppl around the world are even aware of that fact ? Yet everyone knows about the wild west although red dead does reference some elements of it in regards to Mexican society that's not popularly seen in America films about the wild west.
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